Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, censured Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Sindh government for holding farmers tractors march and said that PPP had usurped rights and resources of agricultural community in the province and now holding a march for mere political point scoring.
Talking to media persons after appearing in Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in a case on Monday, he termed PPP’s march as a brazen act as a party that embezzled billions in subsidized tractor scheme, sold gunny bags of growers to traders and stolen irrigation water was trying to become advocate of farmers’ rights.Haleem Adil Sheikh criticized PPP for holding tractor march and said that the party that wanted to exploit farmers for their political point scoring embezzled billions of rupees earmarked for subsidy on 3200 tractors to farmers.
They collected CNICs from farmers in the name of distribution of food ration and then the same cards were used by Omni Group to usurp billions of rupees of farmers, he alleged adding that farmers were not getting gunny bags for wheat, sugarcane growers could not get fair price from sugar mills mostly owned by Zardari and company while tail-end farmers were facing severe shortage of irrigation water.
Farmers and growers across Pakistan were issued ‘Kisan Card’ and they were availing its benefits including subsidy on seed and fertilizer but in Sindh PPP had deprived farmers of their rights, the Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly said and added “PPP has turned into anti-peasant, anti-worker and anti-people party.” He said that false and fabricated cases were instituted against him by PPP Sindh government because he was exposing corruption and inefficiency of Asif Zardari, Murad Ali Shah and his accomplice.
There was vast scale corruption in health, education and all other government departments in Sindh while human rights of people were being violated, he added. “I exposed corruption in food department, I raised issue of procurement of expensive school desks, I have taken up murder cases of Nazim Jokhio and Fehmida Sial and reached at hospitals of Sindh to help destitute and needy people of the province and that was my crime,” he stated.
He and his companions were political workers who were fighting case of poor and deprived people of Sindh, Haleem Adil said adding that he was charged in false cases of terrorism though neither he nor his companions were terrorists and all the available videos, photographs and other evidences were presented to the JIT.
Even he was involved in defamation cases by a provincial minister who was allegedly involved in patronizing sell of narcotics in his constituency, the Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly said and termed it as a well thought conspiracy to keep him engaged in court proceedings and obstruct him from serving the people of Sindh.
On the other side, the district public prosecutor Malir was with-holding JIT report on Nazim Jokhio murder case to save the influential assassins belonging to PPP, he alleged adding that the Sindh prosecution department that was headed by Murtaza Wahab had become facilitator of terrorists and tyrannical killers.
He also expressed concerns over killing of people in courts and said that incidents of murder were occurring in courts of Sindh as Police had failed to provide security in courts and it was easy to target people who came to appear before the court on hearing of their cases.
Haleem Adil Sheikh said that a Special Security Unit was set up in Sindh police with expenditure of millions of rupees and a SSU personnel was getting additional Rs. 20,000 in salary but their performance was nonexistent as it has become Zardari force and reserved for VIP security.
He said that PTI Sindh President Ali Haider Zaidi has announced a march against PPP’s corruption and black laws from Ghotki to Karachi from February 27 and Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi is also expected to participate in the march.
The Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly said that there was dictatorship in the province and opposition in provincial assembly was being suppressed even budget for the current year for the first time in history was approved without speech of leader of the opposition and concluding speech of finance minister that was a violation of constitutional requirement.
Responding to a query on gas shortage, Haleem Adil Sheikh said that no province was being treated unfairly and there was shortage of natural gas in the entire country as previous governments had not planned for exploration of new resources of oil and gas when available resources were rapidly depleting.
Earlier, Haleem Adil Sheikh appeared in ATC Court Karachi in Malir bye-election case. The court decided to resume proceeding of the case after submission of report by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) formed by federal government to probe into the cases and fixed February as next date for hearing of the case.
